


young & beautiful

by uniformlover23



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-13 13:29:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15365718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uniformlover23/pseuds/uniformlover23





	young & beautiful

It’s raining she notices. Of course it has to be raining on this day. Cheryl picks up her phone glancing at the time. It’s 3:32 a.m, and she sees she only has 20 minutes until her flight begins to board. She has on a sweatshirt, hood over her head, and earbuds in. Any passerby would just see a redhead patiently waiting for her flight. Frankly though, that’s not exactly the case.

Cheryl has her carry-on and a backpack. Everything else she owns is already half way across the country in a dorm room at the college she’s going to be attending. It’s the end of August and classes would be starting soon, but she had to come home at least one more time, after getting her things squared away in California.

People have asked her why she came back for only three days. She just shook it off, saying she wanted to get the last feel of home, because it would be months before she came back. She knows the real reason why she came home though. She thought that maybe if she gave it one last chance, she wouldn’t lose the person that mattered most to her. She feels tears start to brim her eyes, and she turns up her music and sinks farther into the chair, flashbacks of the past 24 hours flooding her mind once again.

_“I can’t do that to you Cheryl.” Toni yells back, while leaning against the counter top in her trailer._

_“You aren’t doing anything Toni. Just tell me to stay, and I will.” Cheryl stands up from the chair she was seated at, her voice cracking._

_“Cheryl, I can’t fucking ask you to throw away your dream for me. I can’t hold you back. I can’t let Penelope hurt you again because of me. You need to go Cheryl.” Toni says, as she uses the back of her hand to hide the tears that have already began to fall._

_It’s silent for a few seconds. Cheryl understands why Toni is doing what she’s doing. They’ve had this conversation before, countless times in fact. Cheryl got into Stanford, with her 4.0 GPA and excellent test scores. Toni got into NYU for photography. Two colleges over a thousand miles apart._

_Cheryl originally didn’t give a rats ass about Stanford until Penelope heard about it too. Cheryl understands that she’s smart, and she understands that Stanford is an opportunity she should be thankful for. She didn’t care at first because she wasn’t going to move away from Toni, she knew she could get into any school she wanted. But when Penelope heard about the acceptance letter Cheryl received, she used it to blackmail Cheryl into leaving and “finally getting away from her deviant behavior”._

_The two girls were heartbroken when Cheryl spilled what Penelope had said. Cheryl didn’t want to walk away from not only Toni, but the solid foundation she has built with the Serpents. Hell, even the core fore were growing on her. She didn’t want to leave, but Toni wasn’t going to budge, because of the fact that Penelope legit threatened Cheryl’s safety if she didn’t go._

_“Do you love me?” Cheryl whispered, feeling the first tear fall down her cheek._

_“You know the answer to that.” Toni says softly, with a wholehearted look in her eyes._

_“Then let me stay.” Cheryl begged._

_“I can’t. I can’t let you get hurt because of the life we have here.” Toni says just above a whisper._

_“Then I can’t keep fighting for this.” Cheryl demands as she wipes the tears away and begins walking towards the door. She’s just so angry and hurt, she doesn’t know what else to do._

_“Cheryl...” She sees Toni plead out of the corner of her eye._

_“Goodbye Toni,” Cheryl says without a second glance, slamming the door behind her. She doesn’t get it._

She doesn’t understand how Toni would be willing to give it all up, just because of Penelope. It’s been killing her ever since she walked out of Toni’s trailer. Toni has been the only one to love her unconditionally. She’s been the only one to give Cheryl a home without needing an actual household.

They’ve built such a solid relationship full of trust and love. Toni was her person, and the fact that Toni is choosing to separate that for Cheryl’s safety over getting through it together, hurts.

She just wants their carefree relationship where they would dance in the kitchen at midnight while making cookies. Where they would whisper they loved each other, and hold each other. She would give anything to go back to one of those moments, instead of sitting at an airport where she almost has no choice but to throw it all away for right now.

_It was a little past 12:30 a.m. Neither of the two girls could sleep, resulting in the two making chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen in just their sweatshirts and underwear._

_Toni was just finishing putting the last batch in when Cheryl had the sudden urge to dance with her. She walked over to the stereo Toni had in the corner of the kitchen. She moved to plug her phone in putting one of her favorite Lana Del Rey song’s on. Once the beginning of the song started bleeding through the whole house, she walked back over to Toni who was now facing her with an adorning grin on her face. God, that smile could just make Cheryl melt into a puddle._

_**I've seen the world, done it all** _

**_Had my cake now Diamonds, brilliant, in Bel-Air now_ **

**_Hot summer nights, mid July When you and I were forever wild_ **

**_The crazy days, city lights The way you'd play with me like a child_ **

_“Dance with me.” Cheryl pleads with a softness in her voice, she didn’t even realize she could carry._

_“Always Bombshell.” Toni reaches around Cheryl’s waist and pulls her closer to her body, causing Cheryl to throw her arms around Toni’s neck and lightly place her head against the other girl’s._

**_Will you still love me When I'm no longer young and beautiful?_ **

**_Will you still love me When I've got nothing but my aching soul?_ **

**_I know you will, I know you will I know that you will_ **

**_Will you still love me when I'm no longer beautiful?_ **

_She doesn’t know how long they dance to that song for. At least 10 minutes have gone by, and in this very moment Cheryl hasn’t felt this much peace and love in her entire life._

_They both jump at the sound of the oven going off, and laugh at their reactions. Toni stands on her tip toes and places a kiss on Cheryl’s forehead, before unwrapping herself from Cheryl and taking the cookies out of the oven to cool off._

_“I hope you know I will. I’ll still love you, even when you don’t think you’re beautiful. Even when you think you’re getting old. I’ll love you forever Cheryl.” Toni says as she moves the cookies from the pan to the counter._

_Cheryl almost wants to laugh at how simple it seemed for Toni to just say that. She makes her way over to Toni, wrapping her arms around her, forcing her to drop the spatula and turn towards her._

_“I love you.” Cheryl says looking into Toni’s eyes, leaning in and connecting their lips with the music still playing, and the smell of fresh cookies in the air. She knows she wouldn’t trade this for the world._

“Flight 234 to San Francisco will be boarding now. Zone 1 passengers may begin boarding.” She hears over the intercom, breaking her from the memory.

Cheryl really wants to cry now. She doesn’t want to let Toni go, not even in the slightest. She can’t do anything about the situation though, Toni pretty much just kicked her out of her life.

Cheryl stands up collecting her things, when it really hits her that this is real. Her body is numb. She feels like she’s cried more than she ever has before. The reality of the situation is, she’s going to get on this plane and go to the college Penelope wants her to go to.

She knows Toni won’t be with her. She can physically feel herself lose her. She can feel her heart break more and more as she takes each passing step towards the gate. She doesn’t want to leave.

Cheryl’s about to hand her boarding pass over to one of the employees behind the boarding station when she hears it. She hears the voice of the woman she’s in love with just barely in the distance.

“Cheryl..” She feels her heart break more, because there is no way in hell Toni would be here at 3:30 in the morning. Not after what happened back at her trailer.

She ducks her head deeper into her hood, so the woman checking her boarding pass doesn’t ask any questions about her current mental state.

“Cheryl!!!!” Finally Cheryl turns around, just to look to see if she’s imaging it or not. She’s expecting to not see the girl with pink hair. She’s expecting to just see a normal crowd of people. But she doesn’t.

She sees Toni running, no sprinting towards her.

She can’t believe it. She doesn’t know how or why, but Toni is somehow here running towards her in sweatpants and a sweatshirt with her hair in a messy bun.

It hits her all at once that Toni is running towards her, and she hastily drops all her stuff. She breaks into a run through the crowd of people, desperate to reach Toni.

It all comes crashing down, and suddenly she’s in Toni’s arms again. She can feel Toni physically lift her up with her arms around her waist, as she engulfs Toni in her own arms as well. They grip each other so tight, scared of letting go.

“I got you. I’m here. I’m never leaving again. I’m here. I’m sorry.” Toni is whispering into her ear, as she buries her head into the crook of her neck.

Toni came back. Somehow she came back, and she’s here. Cheryl leans her head back and immediately connects their lips after looking into Toni’s eyes, that have tears in them.

After a few seconds she pulls away and connects their foreheads, leaning in again to kiss her, because holy fuck Toni’s there.

“Stay. Please stay. We can do this together. I’m sorry it took so long for me to realize that I can’t lose you. I won’t lose you. I’m so fucking sorry Cheryl. Please stay. I need you more that I need to breath.” Toni gasps out after disconnecting their lips.

“I will. I promise. I’m staying. I’m here. I’m never letting you go.” Cheryl says desperately, digging her head into Toni’s neck once again.

“I told you this over a year ago, but I still will. I’ll still love you until we’re old. Where you won’t see it, but you’ll still be young and beautiful in my eyes. I love you now. And I’ll love you then. I promise with every fiber of my being I will continue to love you for all eternity.” Toni says into her ear, she can hear the tears in Toni’s voice and she herself begins to cry.

“I’m staying. I’m staying because I love you. I love you and you’re it for me. We’re going to get married one day. No natter how many barriers we go through, it’s me and you okay? I can’t lose you Toni. I can’t.” Cheryl speaks into Toni’s neck as Toni is slightly rocking her back and forth and rubbing her back.

“Then it’s settled. It’s you and I. Till we’re no longer young and beautiful and even beyond that. It’s us, forever baby.”


End file.
